Cross My Heart Hope to Die
by Sakura Blackwolf
Summary: The Sanzo-ikkou have just come across a quiet town. But behind that silence is a series of murders, done as a hate-crime against the sinful. So what happens when the town sees Gojyo?


Hmm, yes I do know this is a Mary Sue. But truth is I wanted to try a different twist at MSs(Do I sound stupid or what O.o?) When I say that, I mean I'm trying for a dark fic XD! Again!(Kappa: *bored tone* Joy)  
  
Romance? What romance?  
  
Disclaimer: Gensomaden Saiyuki belongs to Minekura Kazuya and Enix. Belial is my very own messed up character.  
  
  
Cross My Heart; Hope to Die  
  
by Doc(Sakura Blackwolf)  
  
  
[Do you know what my name means?]  
  
  
"Come here, little girl." The said girl shook with fear as she backed up against the corner of the room. Her taboo eyes dilated when she realized she could not escape any further, and desperately clawed at the wall with her dirt stained fingers. In slow, heavy steps he drawed out purposely, a man in a dark uniform carrying a large stake came closer to the girl, who was maybe about nine or ten in age. His heels clicked and echoed in the area, the girl's whimpers the only other sound. Grabbing her by her damp scarlet hair, painted with black dye that hung like loose spiderwebs on her head, he pulled her head back. The tears that gathered at her rose-blushed eyes spilled over her eyelashes as tension picked at every nerve in her young form.  
  
The large stake he had been carrying was pointed at her moonlight pale neck.  
  
She screamed.  
  
  
[Worthless]  
  
  
Four pairs of eyes observed the town they had just stopped in. Hakkai let his hands relax on the wheel, "This place looks rather calm." Goku just shrugged at the note and pulled his cloak closer to his body, all the while shivering here and there. It was the time of the year it started to snow, and Goku wasn't very fond of snow. Teeth chattering, the boy turned his golden eyes over to the silent priest, "Naa, Sanzo. Let's go somewhere and eat already. I'm going to freeze to death!"  
  
"That would be a solution to my problems, wouldn't it?" Hakkai smiled as Goku reacted with a surprised, "Sanzo!", and turned around to look at Gojyo, who was brushing the snow off his shoulders.   
  
"Gojyo, are you alright? You've been rather silent lately."  
  
The redhead just flashed him a lazy grin, adjusting the cloak around his lanky form so it warmed his ears, "Nah, just been on the brink of hypothermia, Hakkai, but other than that I'm just dandy."  
  
The brunette frowned a little, but that didn't last when Gojyo laughed and slung an arm around the other's shoulders, "You know I won't let the snow kill me."  
  
"It might as well," Sanzo muttered from the side. The redhead scoffed.  
  
"Even though this place seems calm, something about it chills me," Hakkai absently commented. "Like something is wrong. I can't quite put on my finger on it though." Sanzo raised a thin eyebrow at the person seated next to him as Goku's whines from the back ran through his ears in the cold environment. The golden eyed boy rubbed his ears vigoriously in an attempt to get warmer, "Aaa, can't we go to an inn already? I'm damn cold!"  
  
  
A scream pierced through the winter sky and suddenly all thoughts about seeking warmth faded.  
  
  
"What the hell was that?!" Goku cried out.  
  
"Seems this place isn't so calm after all," Hakkai noted. Gojyo suddenly shivered, "Felt like someone just walked over my grave."  
  
Sanzo stayed silent, watching the snow as it fell. Nobody seemed to be running out in alert. In fact, it seemed as if the screaming was something they heard on a daily basis. The blonde's deep violet eyes shifted to the large buliding at the very end of the town. There were no windows, only a door. Even from where he sat, the walls seemed thick and intimidating. And it was quiet. That bothered him even more. Returning his attention back to the other three in the jeep, he added, "Hakkai, get us to an inn."  
  
"Hai hai."  
  
That feeling that ran over the blonde's spine and everyone else's was not ignored. But he would figure out what was bothering him later.  
  
  
Once at the inn, Goku immediately curled up by the open fireplace, sighing in relief, "I feel so much better now." Hakkai smiled as he sat down on one of the inn's chairs nearby the warmth. The open living room was large, but not many people seemed to go through it. Sanzo was seated on the other side of the fireplace, absently smoking on a cigarette as Goku turned around to face them once more, "Ne, Hakkai, where's Gojyo?"  
  
"I think he said he was going to look around."  
  
"He's probably trying to pick up some girl again," Sanzo muttered.  
  
"But what was that screaming we heard?"  
  
"Saa na."  
  
"These people seem to be very used to it. I hope Gojyo's okay," the older brunette sighed as he leaned back on the soft cushion of his chair.   
  
"He can take care of himself." One of the maids smiled as she walked up to the place where they sat. She had her deep brown eyes on all of them, but mostly on the blonde priest.  
  
"I hope everything is okay. Is there anything I can help you with?" Sanzo ignored her glance to him as he stubbed out his cigarette on an ashtray. Hakkai strained on a smile as he answered for the priest, much to the maid's disappointment, "Yes, everything is fine. But we do have a question."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"When we came to this town, we heard someone screaming. Is there a reason for this, miss?" The girl's smile faltered a little. Smoothing out her brown ponytail, her thought of the beauty of the high ranking priest was gone.  
  
"Yes, there is. If you noticed, there's a tall buliding at the end of this town. See, this town is very..protective about their residents. About a year or so ago, these people started coming into our town, claiming they wanted to protect us. So they bulit that establishment over there. They would find anything sinful, like half-youkai, or homosexuals, to capture and then," she paused in her sentence, before going on. "There's a term here, called 'staking'. Basically those people, or stakers, would take the taboo person and drive a stake through either their head, neck, or heart. It's been going on for a while, and I know people who don't like it. But everyone's too scared to go against them! And anyone that does winds up dead."  
  
"Now that I think of about it...I smell blood, Sanzo," Goku murmured from the crackling of fire.  
  
"If you're thinking about stopping it, please don't. Sanzo houshi-sama, really. It's none of your concern." The blonde stayed silent for a moment, before moving his head in the direction of the fireplace, "Ch'."  
  
Hakkai's eyebrows furrowed in worry, "Gojyo..."  
  
  
  
Gojyo trudged through the snow, the cloak around him pulled closer. A lit cigarette balanced on his lips, he wandered through the town square, "This place is really weird. There's no one out here." Pushing back a strand of crimson hair behind his ear, he watched the cold water spew from the square's fountain statue of an angel. Her stone carved hands were holding a small pot that was spilling water below as she took on a sympathetic look. But Gojyo didn't feel any sort of sympathy from a chunk of rock. That all it was to him. A chunk of rock. The snow yielded under his boots as he moved away from the fountain, taking in the sound of snow crushing against the earth. That is, until a small cry reached his ears. Looking up, Gojyo saw a tall, lanky man being pushed to the cold ground and a man in a slim, dark uniform standing before him. Stepping closer, he could hear the words being exchanged.  
  
"You should've thought twice before going against the Purgare." Finally, the redhead noticed the long stake in the uniformed man's grasp. And it was pointed at the other's head.  
  
Was he-?  
  
Could he really be-?  
  
Why is he-?  
  
A yell died at the tip of his tongue as he noticed another running into the area.  
  
A woman dashed to shield the lanky man and what Gojyo noticed first about her was- red hair and red eyes. Taboo.  
  
"Stop!" She outstretched her bruised arms in a way of protection, "Don't hurt this man. Please."  
  
"Damn woman!" The man in uniform shoved her roughly to the side, scarring her upper chest with the tip of the wooden stake, causing another large cry.   
  
And Gojyo suddenly wondered why he hadn't noticed the shades of faded scarlet on the snow before.   
  
The woman fell back, holding the wound that painfully burned itself in her flesh, lifting herself back up on her forearm. And she watched with dilated eyes as the stake pointed itself back at the other man and drove itself through his cranium, drawing crimson in the air. The screams felt like they went on forever.   
  
The half-youkai man watched in horror as blood seemed to splatter on the sheet of white for miles and miles until finally it stopped and the stake pulled back. The stench of fresh blood made him feel sick to his stomach, but the thought of that stopped all at once when the staker turned to face the woman.  
  
"You..you've messed with us long enough, Belial." And Gojyo didn't know what happened next. All he could process was that he had started running and soon he was on the ground, on top of the man, his fist throbbing as if he had just hit him across the face. The bloody stake was far out of reach.  
  
"Who..who are....Taboo?!" the man sputtered out, struggling uselessly under the redhead's strength, the cloak around Gojyo's shoulders shaking to the snow below.  
  
"Taboo...? What are you doing?! Get out of there!" The girl, Belial as he remembered, grabbed his wrist and dragged him as fast as she could away from the murder scene. And the rest? All he remembered was seeing red on white. He would've liked to say he hadn't just seen that, and it was just some crazy illusion. Well, he would've.  
  
  
Belial..he had felt as if he had heard that name before. He felt like he knew the meaning of it. Didn't that name mean...  
  
Worthless?  
  
  
TBC  
  
Purgare: Latin for "cleanse" 


End file.
